


Burnished Gold

by karrenia_rune



Category: Arthurian Mythology
Genre: First Meetings, Gen, POV Female Character, Yuletide 2007
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-03
Updated: 2012-01-03
Packaged: 2017-10-28 18:59:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/311160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karrenia_rune/pseuds/karrenia_rune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time Gunivere ever set eyes on Arthur, from her point of view.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Burnished Gold

**Author's Note:**

  * For [alexcat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexcat/gifts).



Disclaimer: The Arthurian Legends and the characters of Guenivere and Arthur are not mine. for alexcat

"Burnished Gold" by Karne

The day that I came to the glittering court of Camelot was the day the first crop of apples were to be harvested that year. I had arranged to take a troupe of giggling young girls in tow in order that they might serve as my ladies-in-waiting.

The carriage was a well-sprung contraption pulled by a quartet of matched horses and and it might have been a pleasant way to spend the journey except that it felt as if we were packed in there, and in close comforts it was a bit of an ordeal.

It might have wished to be sprung from that carriage and taken to horse, but the escort sent by Arthur might well have been scandalized by the very idea of a woman on horseback so I refrained by making any action toward that end.

The first spring thaw was also in the air. I had heard many tales of my future husband-to be and all spoke well of him, so in as any young girl I had high hopes that the arranged marriage would work out well for all concerned.

In this day and age I was well aware that one did marry for love but for the sake of either political or other expidency, and as much I might wish to believe the poets and traveling minstrels tales of romantic love might still be mine, in practical terms that would be the case and it was something that I would just have to learn to accept, grudgingly or not.

The convoy had stopped for an evening meal and cup of wine during a short rest break near a forest and sensing my opportunity and making excuses to the ladies-in-waiting, I alight from the carriage, as I hold up the trailing edges of my skirts and dart into the forest.

The slender birches seemed to be guarding the entry and the evergreen still shone with a verdant and heady piney scent, hinting at the darker, muskier and deeper scents within.

As I parted branches to allow for my passage deeper into the forest I could smell the mingled scents of rosemary, cedar wood burning for a fire, scents alike yet subtly different from those found in my island of home of Glastonbury. My steps hastened, curious as to why these should be present.

As I approached I saw a tall young knight stooped over a fire, his shoulders were broad and well-formed and his dark brown hair swept down to those same shoulders. His eyes, when they caught and held mine were brown shading toward hazel.

The light filtering in through the forest's canopy caught and held and made triangles of light on the ground, tinting his tanned skin probably from a life spent out of doors a burnished gold. In that in-held breath, in that moment I found myself quite believing in the poets ideas of romantic love, and I would hope that he felt the same way about me.

Little did I know that much like myself, this was an Arthur, attempting to get away from the court, and his concerns, this was the king and my future husband-to-be caught in an unguarded moment; and in that moment I found myself falling in love with him at first sight, as the poets say is wont to happen from time to time.

Love, as I have learned is never quite that simple or straightforward; love is much more complicated, more than my duty as Queen and wife, but I have found that it was worth it.


End file.
